Best Buy Got an F

[picopir8]

The today show had a hidden camera story about stores with bad customer service.  Best Buy was the worst.  Kinda funny.  They used to work on commision way back when but someone figured it would be better to get rid of the commision and pay flat rates.  Since then the good emplyees left and the  people there now dont seem to care.  Yet in the same time, prices have gone up compared to compeditors.  Thats exactly why I have avoided them for the last few years and do most of my shopping online or with their compeditors.

One time I aksed an employee if they had any dos prompt, the employee ran in circles for about 10 minutes and then came back and told me they were out of stock.  It aint all bad though.  Way back when I purchased a high end DSS receiver (I dont think they call them that any more ever since USSB was sold to DirecTV) and I was supposed to get a cheepo model for free along with a bunch of other free stuff.  Well, the BB guy accidently gave me a second high end receiver.  The deal was pretty good to begin with.  I calculated about $500 worth of stuff for about $300 but I ended up walking out with about $700 worth of stuff.

[Matt Heebner]

My expectations for Best Buy have never been high. I remember when new technologies came out like DVD, and high def, you could really clean up on deals from the open item tables mainly because I dont think that BB really knew what to charge open box OTA HD recievers and stuff like that when they first came out. They sometimes had things priced rediculously low. I remember seeing a beat up looking RCA-DTC-100 HD receiver they used for their HD demo on the open box table. I inquired about it to a sales guy, and the guy said they'd sell it to me for $35. May not seem like a big deal now, but years ago these things were worth $600 or so new. I also saw a SVHS player years ago open box for like $30. I think new it was almost $400. (This was long before DVD...probably closer to the laserdisc era)

I still keep an eye out for deals like that but they have gotten a little smarter over the years.
Matt

[Tom Snyder]

For the first few years my company was in business, we built our workstation infrastructure on Best Buy Open Box stuff. We'd get desktops for a couple hundred bucks apiece and latops for $3-400... and back in '97, 98' and '99 that was outrageously low. On top of that, we had a guy at one of the stores always throw in a 3 year extended warranty...

[Army82ndAB]

I take offense to the original posters statement that all good employees have left Best Buy since they switched to Non-Commission. I find that to be quite generalized and without much thought being put into, as I consider myself to be an excellent employee with a great deal of knowledge regarding technology. Anytime you have a company the size of a Best Buy you will get terrible employees like anywhere in life, but to bunch them all as bad would be a huge mistake.

[SRW1000]

I've rarely had any problems with Best Buy, and I've bought a lot of stuff there over the years.  Of course, I'm going in as an educated consumer.

In general, especially with tech products, there are good and bad employees at every store, regardless of whether or not their paid by commission.  Back when I was still shopping for an HDTV, I stopped by one of the commission-based stores.  I could tell that at least two of the employees hadn't done any homework on the technology.  One guy told me that the new DILA sets were really the best because they had three color wheels for each DLP chip.  I briefly tried to straighten him out, but could tell there was no real interest in anything other than making the sale.

It pays to do your own homework, shop around, and if you need to - find a salesperson who knows what he's talking about.

Scott

[Talos4]

I've never really been a big proponent of the B&M stores.  

Especially for large electronic purchases.  

I don't always shop for price, it matters to me if when I'm talking with someone about a product that they are knowlegdable, able to answer my questions without checking with someine else or dancing around the answer.  

I do agree that there are always going to be good and bad at every place.

I just resist making my major ($$$) purchases IMHO in a warehouse geared towards volume not personal service.

Flanners is not a best price store however, 99% of the gear in my signature was purchased there.  Thanks to all the guy's there for their personal service (unfortunately they all seem to smile when I walk in )  

BTW The new store is awesome! :bow:

[Tom Snyder]

I spent ten years as a retail store manager and I can tell you that hiring qualified sales people is a huge challenge...for big stores OR small stores. You'll have a handful of folks with a passion for what you sell that drives them to be an evangelist for their product (which almost always is their hobby)... whether it's ski and camping equipment, computer gear, BMW's, or electronics. The rest are all just looking for a "job."  Give you one guess which makes the best salesperson.

And you might think that the good salespeople cost more, but that's not necessarily the case either. The guys with the passion often would do it for free if they could. The guys who just need the job have to make enough money to make it worth their while to do something they hate.

So I agree with Scott to a point...  The other thing to consider is that a lot of stores (and manufacturers) offer spiffs to the salespeople to move partcular products, and so salespeople (good or bad) will try to move you to those products even if the it's not exactly what you're looking for.

Be prepared and do your homework. With the Internet, there's no reason for guys like us to rely on salespeople - but a good one is still great to find.

[Doug Mohr]

Its not just Best Buy. Has anyone called their phone company, hospital customer service, or a government agency?

Employee training is going downhill in general. Companies are looking at front-line employees as disposable and interchangable and not putting in the investment to fully train them or offer incentives to become better employees. Employees are becoming laxidasical about jobs with no personal interest in anything other than a check. It snowballs into a customer's nightmare.

Unfortunatly I don't see the trend reversing. As the "Career" mentality is being replaced with the "job" mentality on both sides, the consumer will continue to suffer.

There are still great, well trained people out there who work hard to make the customer happy, but they are getting harder and harder to find.

Doug

[Matt Heebner]

Well, I am loving something from Best Buy ...... The Reward Zone Program!!!  I had everyone in my family that bought stuff for Christmas at BB  put it on my reward zone card...you just have them give your phone number to the cashier.
Anyways..............WHOOOHOOOO a $75 gift certificate to spend....Not too shabby for a $10 sign up fee. I checked online and my total for the last year was over $200 in free gift certificates.

What a GREAT program.....what to buy what to buy  :p

Matt